Eat This!
Dan Chuyeon flipped through the hotel channels. What came up was a foreign newscast he couldn't understand at all.
The screen offered nothing pleasant: foreigners in suits grabbing one another by the collar, or clutching their heads and screaming. A blue arrow cut in over them and plunged straight down, as if it meant to bore into the earth. The arrows multiplied, driving dozens of graphs into the basement.
"They're talking about the KOSDAQ and the KOSPI. Is that place New York?"
He took a wild guess from the few words he could catch, and it seemed about right. When the street footage zoomed out, famous New York buildings sat in the corner of the frame.
"They're not exactly normal over there, either..."
New York's streets might as well have been a battlefield. People marched with signs held high while the police scrambled to hold the crowds back. Flames roared out of a bank. Armed robbers tore down the road in a car, and heroes streaked between the buildings.
Crime on one side, the pain of simply living on the other. Faced with that dissonance, a hollow laugh escaped Dan Chuyeon. He picked up his phone and checked the news from home, and there was nothing good there either—corporate bankruptcies, a sharp spike in the unemployed, companies at war with their unions, rising crime, protest marches, the government's response, talk of launching the Korea Hero Association ahead of schedule...
It made his head spin.
"Nothing else worth watching..."
Dan Chuyeon sighed.
"Sigh like that, and one would think you had already lived out a whole life."
Hong Yumin was feeding snacks to San-gun. The tiger licked the crumbs with his little front paws.
"...Master, when we go back, do you think I'll even be able to attend school properly?"
"Well. From what I see, the world is a proper mess."
Let a single country go wrong, and the world economy staggered. This was not one place. Dozens had been reduced to wasteland. A nation carrying a heavy debt could vanish tomorrow, and no one would blink.
"Any number of countries are propping one another up so they do not die... but how it ends, I cannot say. I am a stranger to such matters."
"Honestly, it's hanging by a thread even now. The moment one place collapses, the rest will go like dominoes."
"If it ended at dominoes, we would be fortunate."
Hong Yumin picked a crumb from the corner of San-gun's mouth.
"The world can decline. A decline in which blood and flesh run wild, and strength alone is justice."
"Surely not..."
"You think it cannot happen? Look at Africa and the Middle East. It seems to me it has already come to pass."
At the gravity in Hong Yumin's voice, unease surged up through Dan Chuyeon.
"...Could our country end up like that too?"
"I have lived in this land for hundreds of years. I would call it a matter of time."
She patted the rump of San-gun, who had shoved his head into the snack bag. Plush flesh and soft fur settled snug against her palm.
"A dictator above us. Another dictator above that one. A dictator to the left. To the right, not quite dictators—hereditary heads of state playing at democracy."
The wonder was that a war hadn't broken out already.
As Hong Yumin listed the countries off, the color drained from Dan Chuyeon's face.
"Nor can you ignore the enemy within. Your father is beating down most of what rises, but if things turn quickly—as one hand cannot hold back ten—more than one place will blow."
"...Am I going to get conscripted?"
"Before that, you had best worry about surviving."
Dan Chuyeon dragged a hand up his forehead. Beads of sweat pattered off.
"Master... could you perhaps divine it for me?"
"Divine? How do you know of that?"
"Mom told me."
"Aigoo. Soryeong..."
Hong Yumin glared at the bedroom door. This friend of hers couldn't keep her mouth shut for even a moment...
"She said you'd done it a few times for fun. Mostly when you were hunting for good restaurants..."
"Hnn. I did, yes."
And every place she had gone had been delicious, at that.
"Then couldn't you just divine whether a war breaks out or not?"
"No. Great matters are not to be divined lightly."
"Right..."
Dan Chuyeon looked disappointed.
Hong Yumin kept the rest to herself. In truth, she had already lifted her eyes to Heaven and tried. The trouble was that she could not read what she saw.
It has been like this from the moment I became entangled with that one.
Small divinations—finding a good restaurant, reading a birth chart—still worked well enough. Anything on the grand scale was useless. She ought to have known of this incident long before it came, and yet Heaven had given her no answer at all.
He might as well have stepped clean out of fate.
Well. That one's very existence made a mockery of fate.
While Dan Chuyeon paced the room, fretting over what lay ahead, and San-gun patted his swollen belly, the window flew open with a clack and a rush of wind, and something came rolling in.
"Behold—this body's grand entrance."
Dan Chuyeon and Hong Yumin watched the Phantom Thief strike his pose in imitation of a Kamen Rider charging through time, and the light went straight out of their eyes. They were used to him by now. It wasn't even surprising.
"What were you doing, that you come rolling in only now?"
"I was talking with Pele. I only stopped by because I have business here."
"Business? What business do you mean?"
"I've come to collect Dan Chuyeon."
"Huh? Me?"
Dan Chuyeon pointed at himself.
"Yes. Come with me to the volcano. There's something important."
"And what matter is this, that you would take my disciple?"
Hong Yumin's brow creased. What scheme was this wretch plotting now... Dan Chuyeon wasn't eager either. From the moment he had gotten tangled up with this man, there hadn't been a single peaceful day in the house.
"It's urgent. There's no one but Dan Chuyeon who can resolve this."
Wary looks or not, the Phantom Thief was firm. The way his eyes fixed on Dan Chuyeon, it seemed that if it came to it, he would drag the boy off by force.
A bitter taste filled Hong Yumin's mouth. She wanted to beat the nonsense out of him, but if that one set his mind on a thing, she couldn't stop him anyway. Worse, his mask had gone back to the way it used to be, and that unsettled her.
"Come, Chuyeon."
"Yes?! Master, you really mean it...?"
Dan Chuyeon looked up at Hong Yumin like a man betrayed.
"I already wore myself out today, undoing the seal..."
"I know. But even I cannot stop that one. If you do not wish to be dragged, you had best follow quietly. Do not worry. I will watch him closely, so he cannot try anything foolish."
"......All right."
Dan Chuyeon gave in. When a master he revered like heaven said so, what else could he do?
"Good. Then let's go."
The Phantom Thief's smile left Dan Chuyeon uneasy.
Surely nothing's going to happen...
He comforted himself as best he could and moved his feet.
And then—
He was hurled into the magma.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"You fucking bastard!!!!"
"Hruff?!"
And amid those fading screams, Dan Chuyeon plunged into the lake of magma.
Am I dead?
Dan Chuyeon drifted in an empty void.
So I died.
Master could probably survive even in magma. So could Dad. The Phantom Thief who had thrown him down would survive too. But him, still unripe? That would be hard. Yeah.
They said the axe you trust is the one that splits your foot. So this was what that felt like. And there was still so much he hadn't done...
Hahaha. If I'd known I was going to die like this, I should've tried a little more of everything...
A Korean high schooler, dead from falling into a Hawaiian volcano... What a bizarre way to go.
"Wake up!"
Ghk—?! L-Lady Pele!
Dan Chuyeon opened his eyes at the voice ringing through his head. A murky crimson current filled his entire vision.
"You got a real scare, didn't you? I'm sorry. I should have stopped him."
N-no, it's fine. But why aren't I dead?
"This volcano is my Sanctuary. You think I'd let you die for nothing?"
Pele's voice was thick with anger.
"Damn it. I'm already exhausted from undoing the seal, and he pulls a stunt like this. I am not letting it go."
Ahaha...
She was genuinely furious. Fair enough. Dan Chuyeon was angry too, but he shrank before a god's wrath.
So now you just send me back, right?
"Uh... I'm really sorry, but I can't get you out yet."
What the hell kind of nonsense was that?
The anger that had guttered out flared up again. The fickle temper of a Korean high schooler began to coil.
Lady Pele. What exactly am I supposed to do down here in this magma? I'm an ordinary high school student.
"Weeeell. There's something you need to find down there. Something only you can do... hehe."
......
The axe came down on his foot a second time.
"Um... Child of Nature? Once this is over, I'll treat you really well. Divine power, my protection—whatever you want, just name it."
Please let me out.
"I'm asking you like this. Please! It's really important!"
......Ah.
Life.
Suffering the unreasonable, Dan Chuyeon took one step closer to adulthood.
What do I have to do...?
"My child, how admirable you are! I knew I could count on you!"
Grit. What do I have to do?
"Uh. Um."
Pele broke into a nervous sweat.
"Ahem. There should be a very unusual stone fragment under this volcano. You just have to find it."
Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to find one rock in all this magma?!
"Well... Listen to the voice of nature! Commune with the world!"
Again! Again with that! Did she have any idea what the situation was?!
Something welled up, and Dan Chuyeon spat out everything he had been holding in.
And how am I supposed to do thaaaaat?!
Rrrumble!
The magma heaved.
"Kyaaaaah! Child, calm down! I was wrong!"
There's nothing around me but magma and rock—how am I supposed to find a fragment of stone?! Kilauea is over a thousand meters high! A thousand meters! Do you even know that?!
"I-I'm sorry..."
That damned voice of nature! I'm a human being's son—how am I supposed to hear nature talking?! Just because fire and water shoot out of my hands, that means I understand nature?!
"That's because you're special..."
Rrrrrumble!
Magma whirled around Dan Chuyeon.
How special can a high schooler be?! If I just—what—if I ask nature to please find me some incredibly unusual rock, is it going to find it for me?!
A soft slide. Tap. Tap.
Gaaaaaah!!! They say there's no one in the world you can trust, and this is why! How can you do this to me!
"Huh? Child?"
Turns out "you live life alone" wasn't wrong at all! Learning that by falling into magma—my life is legendary!
"Behind you! Behind you! Turn around!"
I don't believe you! I'm never believing anyone again!
"Stop talking nonsense and turn around!"
What—!
WHAM!
A dizzying impact sent Dan Chuyeon's eyes spinning.
Wh-what?
When he turned, a stone tablet was floating there.
Uh... hello?
Dan Chuyeon gave a little wave. The tablet glided in and settled snug against his chest. A slab the size of a person had come to him, and he clung to it as he hauled it up.
"...Looks like you found it."
Looks like I did...
He'd found it, somehow.
Pele, you know I only did that because I was angry, right? It absolutely wasn't on purpose.
"...Yeah, I know. The bad one is him."
Fire lit in Dan Chuyeon's eyes, and in Pele's.
Let me out. I'm going to settle this.
"Okay. Wait."
Fwoooosh!
Dan Chuyeon felt the lift of an airplane leaving the ground. His body rode the current and climbed. Then light appeared—
Whump!
With a small burst, he was drinking in sunlight. He swept his surroundings in a hurry and saw, near the crater, the Phantom Thief getting beaten by his master.
"Hey, you son of a bitch! You threw a person into magma?!"
He didn't bother hiding what he had been holding in. Riding the thrust of a magma fountain, he shot up over the Phantom Thief.
"My disciple!"
"Hraaagh!"
He turned his back on those welcome voices and fixed his eyes on the Phantom Thief.
"Dan Chuyeon! You did it!"
That bright, innocent smile set his teeth on edge.
THUD!
He brought the tablet down. Dust billowed up and buried the Phantom Thief.
"Attempted murderer of a minor—here he lies!"
Dan Chuyeon stood proud atop the tablet and raised a hand to the sky.
"Ooh..."
"Grrrnn..."
The immortal and the Heavenly Tiger applauded.
Listening to that applause, Dan Chuyeon fainted on his feet.
This was unexpected.
To think he would find it so quickly. No wonder he was the protagonist. Well—he hadn't expected a meteor to drop on his head out of nowhere. Call it cause and effect.
Still, found was found, and that was a relief. As a bonus, the protagonist seemed to have gotten stronger, too.
He felt the weight of the tablet above his head, and a smile came on its own.
It was only a fragment. But this stone was worth far more than having stopped Ilshikgyo.
If the Stone of Resurrection governed life, then this governed records.
The Tablet of Records.
The records of the world—a fragment of them—had come into this hand.